Isaiah 42:9

Scripture Explained · Pairs with New Beginnings

“Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”

Isaiah 42:9 · World English Bible

What it meant then

Here is the challenge this verse throws down: trust what God says about the future because of what He already got right in the past. This is God speaking, and the claim is oddly specific and checkable. Earlier prophecies, called “the former things,” had already come true by the time this was written, giving the new things now being announced a track record to stand on.

“Before they come up” is the detail carrying the weight: these events are named in advance, before they happen, which is the entire point being tested. The verse works as a pointed claim about God's reliability, one meant to be checked against everything He had already gotten right.

What Matthew Henry wrote

Matthew Henry situated this verse within God's larger pattern of faithfulness, writing that “the work of redemption brings back man to the obedience he owes to God as his Maker,” and that God's promises here are “as reliable as those previously fulfilled” — the new things stand on the same footing as the old, already-proven ones.

Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary, on Isaiah 42:9